Singer, songwriter and producer Gurf Morlix slyly bragged about the relative peace in his most
recent release before his first song at Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza & Live Music tonight.

Gurf Morlix Finds the Present Tense, paranoid double-meaning notwithstanding, officially
lowers the body count in its stories to two. That is, compared to the murder and mayhem of the
songwriter’s previous releases — one of which prompted a cadre of faithful radio DJs to
sarcastically call it “the feel-good album of the year.”

He decided that gave him license right off the bat to trot out one of those two, who
testified in My Life’s Been Taken like the narrator in an old film noir pic.

The song’s protagonist wasn’t unlike many in Morlix’s songs — or in the best traditional
ballads of, say, the last 500 years. A guy serving life for a mishap suffered while trying to get
enough to feed his family, he lamented the end of his life long before his death while he stood
firm for his actions.

Some of Morlix’s charges were far less noble but all were admirably human. In fact, a good
many in the first set added yet another layer to the aged dance between life and art, as the singer
performed a handful of tunes written by one Blaze Foley from Morlix’s tribute album Blaze Foley’s
113th Wet Dream. A gifted songwriter, alcoholic and homeless rounder, Foley was murdered decades
ago.

His songs were covered by the likes of Merle Haggard and saluted in Drunken Angel by Lucinda
Williams, whom Morlix early-on produced and accompanied. Last night, their characters were often
indistinguishable from the stories Morlix, who frequently offered asylum to Foley, told about the
songwriter himself.

The singer accompanied himself with a small parlor guitar and his two stomping feet. Their
microphones were tuned to snare and bass, leading to a bit of monotony on the rhythm track. Dry and
stark, though, the stories never failed to captivate.

As he came to the break before the second set, the singer encouraged the audience to stick
around, saying it is always the best. Deadline kept this writer from hearing it. Though the reprise
may have been even better, it was likely no more cheery — which is as it should have been.